He has as much goodness as learning, and that is saying a bold thing of
one of the first Greek scholars we have.'
[827] Floyer was the Lichfield physician on whose advice Johnson was
'_touched_' by Queen Anne. _Ante_, i. 42, 91, and _post_, July 20, 1784.
[828] To which Johnson returned this answer:--
'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL OF PORTMORE.
'Dr. Johnson acknowledges with great respect the honour of Lord
Portmore's notice. He is better than he was; and will, as his Lordship
directs, write to Mr. Langton.
'Bolt-court, Fleet-street,
April 13, 1784.'
BOSWELL. Johnson here assumes his title of Doctor, which Boswell says
(_ante_, ii. 332, note 1), so far as he knew, he never did. Perhaps the
letter has been wrongly copied, or perhaps Johnson thought that, in
writing to a man of title, he ought to assume such title as he
himself had.
[829] The eminent painter, representative of the ancient family of
Homfrey (now Humphry) in the west of England; who, as appears from their
arms which they have invariably used, have been, (as I have seen
authenticated by the best authority,) one of those among the Knights and
Esquires of honour who are represented by Holinshed as having issued
from the Tower of London on coursers apparelled for the justes,
accompanied by ladies of honour, leading every one a Knight, with a
chain of gold, passing through the streets of London into Smithfield, on
Sunday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, being the first Sunday after
Michaelmas, in the fourteenth year of King Richard the Second.
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